Last Updated on December 7, 2021 by
Welcome to my April 2020 net worth update!
The reason why I do net worth updates is to stay accountable with my finances. I publish my real numbers as it is with the mission to continue to bridge the financial literacy gap for Filipinos one content at a time.
I hope you enjoy today’s post.
April 2020
I spent the month of April primarily at home because the enhanced community quarantine got extended for the second time around.
Now, the new end of enhanced community quarantine is May 15. And it was mentioned that this time there will be no more extension.
I feel mixed of emotions with this news. Part of me is excited the whole quarantine situation is over, but the other part of me is anxious because there is still no vaccine available.
Financially, it was a good month.
I have been saving a lot of money from commute, lunch allowance, and frequent dinners after work. But, I mentioned last net worth recap, we made some family decisions over the quarantine period for the safety of my parents. This will continue to affect my savings.
Once local flights become available, we are hoping our parents can now go back home to Easter Samar for good.
This is too much to process for now but we made a pact as siblings to provide an amount that will cover all the necessary financial things our parents have to settle before living in the province for good.
So, there will surely be changes in my emergency fund in the coming months. Our target for the big move is July.
I am eternally grateful to have such amazing parents. And I will be happy knowing they can now live comfortably without worrying, and without working too hard. I just want them to take a rest and enjoy their retirement years.
Anyway, enough about my parents. For now, I hope you are safe and healthy. The COVID-19 continues to affect us in ways we couldn’t even have imagined.
Just keep the faith strong.
You can go to my personal blog for more inside story of what happened to my life for the month of April.
April 2020 Blog Updates and Highlights
I like to start by thanking everyone who has been following SavingsPinay on Instagram. Thank you for being supportive.
We now have 141 followers already. Thank you so much.
For April, I was able to wrap up only six (6) blog posts.
And in case you missed any of my posts for April 2020, here they are:
41 Ways To Make Extra Money while Working Full Time
Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions on How to Save Money
13 Things I Do to Improve My Finances
S1E1 Learn to Live within Your Means
Top 10 Frequently Asked Question on How to Budget
However, because of the enhanced community quarantine, I stopped doing Facebook Live on SavingsPinay. I plan to redo some videos even though I have limited space in the house and it’s really noisy here.
Still you can watch my recent videos on the SavingsPinay Facebook Page or IG TV.
I am hoping this passion project flourish sooner.
April 2020 Goals
I posted my 2020 goals not long ago and something I learned to be very effective in life is the power of measuring your progress.
Excited to share with you how I’ve been moving in terms of my goals for 2020.
Financial Goals
End 2020 with Php 500,000 net worth
In 2019, even though my salary didn’t move at all, I was able to save and invest Php 100,000. This led me to ending in the Php 250,000 mark in 2019.
For 2020, I made an ambitious goal and that is to end with Php 500,000 net worth.
The reason I made that goal is because I am believing for a career breakthrough of promotion this 2020 which already happened!
Yes! I got the promotion I prayed and hoped for, for the last three years. Hooray! God is good.
With additional salary, I believe this goal is not too far from reality anymore. Of course, I should still couple it with frugality and intentional spending.
Save Php 60,000 Emergency Fund
This has been a long recurring goal since I started this blog. I have no words. I started investing my money early and I do have good benefits from the company so I became hard headed in this area.
I am still contributing Php 2,000 every month to this and automatically adding the cash benefits I receive such as holiday pay, medical allowance, etc.
Same as last month, I had to shell out Php 5,000 for the expenses of my parents since they cannot open the store due to COVID-19.
Max-out Php 48,000 invested in Funds
I have been investing since I was 19. It was the most daring financial move I did, but one I will never regret.
Definitely thankful I started to make my money work for me early. Same as last year, the target money I am committing to investments is Php 48,000.
My saving and investing rate is still at 30%.
Do Spavings and record it
I first heard about the term Spavings from Budgets Are Sexy.
To put it briefly, spavings is a combination of “spending + saving”. Sometimes we get unexpected discounts or savings from our purchases. With spavings, you are required to save the amount you saved instead of putting it back to spend mode.
Here’s my own explanation post for the topic of Spavings.
Since the enhanced community quarantine happened, it has been hard taking note of my spavings. I did made a post about my unplanned savings due to COVID-19 and might continue tracking with this instead and then subtracting with the sum all the groceries I did for the whole quarantine situation.
The current spavings at the moment is still Php 1440.00
Do the 1% Money Saving Challenge
I’ve blogged about the 1% Money Saving Challenge before and will try to complete this year. I am looking forward to another vacation on my birthday so I’m hoping this could be the very fund for it. For
April 2020, I added Php 800 for the Travel Fund. 8 more months to go.
Personal Goals
Get a promotion
The completion of this goal is totally out of my control. But I am definitely praying for it to happen soon. DONE, effective February 2020.
Read 20 books
In April 2020, I was able to read and finish two books. I am finally on track for my 2020 Reading Challenge. I am sharing updates of the books I read in my personal blog, www.izzaglinofull.com.
Blog and Business Goals
Launch SavingsPinay Podcast
One of my big projects for 2020 is to launch my own podcast. A lot of readers have been sending this request over and I thought it would be nice for me to relive as well my dreams of becoming a DJ. Finally this big project is now done!
You can now listen to the very first episode in Spotify or iTunes.
Blog 100 Times
Last year, I was missing-in-action on the blog. I never really made an effort to write and publish a new post every week. I got caught up with my new role at work that I slowly turned to the “I’m busy” card instead of pushing myself.
For April 2020, I ended up with six new posts. I am still far away from the target of 8 to 10 posts every month. Here’s to hoping I can make up this May.
52 YouTube Videos
Last February 2020, I started doing live videos on my Facebook Page. I was planning to upload the videos on YouTube and start publishing new videos every Tuesday!
Although I already have two videos as a backlog for editing, I still didn’t publish them for March because the enhanced community quarantine happened. I don’t want to publish two videos back to back only to stop uploading again. So, I’m really thinking if I can film at home.
My space is limited plus there is a lot of noise in the neighborhood but I hope I can make it work in April.
Fun Goals
Hike
The outbreak has yet to settle down so I don’t think this is possible anytime soon. Not even in the first quarter of 2020. Hopefully, I will have people in my circle arrange one.
April 2020 Net Worth Update
My Emergency Fund lightly improved thanks to the payment my brother made. Now I don’t have any receivable anymore. As much as I want to contribute in full the payment my brother made, I had to give Php 5,000 for my parents needs.
My investments are leaking from every side. The market went downhill and has entered the bear level. Sad!!! But I am a long term investor and I still believe that the market will recover.
Sharing this image just to remind myself (and you reading this who are investing as well) that the market will always go up. The chart doesn't lie! It’s a matter of patience and persistence in the midst of volatility.
In case you are interested to invest here are the posts I’ve made about the different investment vehicles available in the Philippines: I am still hopeful that 2020 will be a better year.
As for me, I choose to stay invested no matter what. I just follow my investment strategy, Peso-Cost Average since I don't need the money any time soon.
Next Month’s Plan
For May 2020, I do not have any planned expenses. The enhanced community quarantine really provided plenty of reasons to save money. I had no money spent for commute, snacks, lunch and dinners.
Last month, one of my goals was to upload YouTube videos. However, due to the enhanced community quarantine and the situation I live in, I wasn’t able to do any new videos for April.
Last Month’s Goal:
- Launch SavingsPinay Podcast – DONE
- Upload YouTube videos again – FAILED
- Read and Finish You are a Badass at Making Money Book – DONE
- Consistently make content – DONE
Goals this Month:
- Workout at least 20x for the whole month
- Start making progress with eBook
- Continue to bulk up on contents before the enhanced community quarantine is lifted
Since it will be the last 15 days for the quarantine set up, I need to ensure I have contents ready no matter what happens next.
Now, a new channel has been added to my platforms – The SavingsPinay Podcast. I have to write scripts and do recordings so I have plenty of episodes I can edit and upload when needed.
Final Notes from SavingsPinay
Now that the enhanced community quarantine has been extended till May 15, I will be staying home for another 15 days. I can’t imagine we’ve been on this situation for almost two months now.
The COVID-19 pandemic really changed our way of life. Stay safe and stay healthy.
That’s it for April 2020.
How’s your finances for April 2020?